Digital picture or photo frames are becoming increasingly popular. A digital photo frame is a device about the size and shape of an ordinary picture frame. A digital photo frame includes an LCD screen, which can display multiple photos in a slideshow format and/or a plurality of photos simultaneously. The timing of a photo slide show may be automatic or may be manually activated.
Manufacturers make different data storage options available. Some frames may have internal memory. Other frames offer memory card slots, typically for SD cards with others allowing MMC, XD, CompactFlash and Memory Sticks too. Therefore, with a 2 GB card, a frame exhibit up to 1,000 of high resolution images.
Different wireless options are available as well. Some frames utilize a USB Bluetooth dongle that acts as a transceiver from a laptop or PC to the frame. Others support WIFI. Accordingly, it may also be possible to send a photo to the frame from anywhere in the world over the Internet. Certain frames makes use of WINDOWS XP and VISTA ‘slideshow’ technology which stream content to the screen, for example, in addition to photos, RSS feeds (e.g. news stories/share prices) from the Internet.
Digital picture frames are enjoyed by many types of people. For example, a grandparent may enjoy their digital photo frame as it cycles through a slideshow of photos of their children, grand children, great grand children, other extended family members as well as their friends. Viewing photos of loved ones may motivate a person to place a telephone call to one or more subjects of the photos. Particularly for those of a grandparent's age, navigating a menu of a telephone book stored on a telephone or mobile communication device may be somewhat difficult due to the size of the font and the manual dexterity required. Even reaching for a written telephone book to manually enter a telephone number into the keypad of a telephone may deter a person from making a telephone call to a loved one that they may otherwise wish to make.